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Latest Michigan Economic Statistics

o Michigan has had an unemployment rate around 7% (the current rate) for more than 2 years. (Free Press, 5-17-05)

o Michigan is currently worst in the nation for unemployment. (Mackinac Center for Public Policy, May 20, 2005) The national unemployment rate is 5.2%, Michigan’s is 7.0%. Michigan has a 36.4% differential above the national average.

o Michigan had a net loss of 46,500 jobs in 2004. According to the most recent data, Michigan and South Carolina are the only states with net job losses from March 2004 to March 2005 with Michigan losing 30,600 and South Carolina losing 6,800. (Joint Economic Committee State Employment Statistics)

o Michigan was the only state in the nation where employment fell between fourth quarter 2003 and fourth quarter 2004. (FDIC State Profile)

o Under Granholm’s watch, Michigan has lost 1 job every 10 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, totaling more than 150,000 jobs lost.

o The last time Michigan had an unemployment rate below the national average was November of 2002.

o The Detroit area has lost more jobs in the last 12 months than any other metropolitan area in the nation, recording a loss of 21,600 jobs, nine times more jobs than second-place Baton Rouge, La., the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. The Lansing metropolitan region ranked sixth (-1,500), behind San Jose, Dayton and Bloomington, Ind.

• Economy

o “Seventy-six percent of metro Detroit executives believe the business climate is weaker today than five years ago — a 41 percent jump over 2004 polling.” (Crain’s Detroit, 5-30-05)

o Michigan ranks last among the states in economic momentum, according to an analysis published in the State Policy Reports newsletter, a project co-sponsored by the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Michigan received a -1.45 on the index. Nevada, which ranked first, received a score of 3.66. Only Michigan and Alaska (-1.29) scored below a -1 on the index. Illinois (-0.76), Ohio (-0.72) and New York (-0.64) rounded out the bottom five. This put Michigan a full 1.5% behind the 49th worst state.

o Michigan was last among the states in employment growth between January 2004 and January 2005 with a -0.3 percent decline, compared to a national average of 1.4 percent.

o Personal income grew in Michigan by 3.29 percent between March 2003 and March 2004, placing Michigan second to last among the states. The national average was 5.15 percent.

• Budget

o “Since 2001, Michigan has had cumulated deficits in excess of $7.8 billion. To offset them, the state has gone through $3.8 billion in fiscal reserves, increased fees and taxes by $1 billion and taken $3 billion in spending cuts.” (M-Live, Booth Newspapers, 5-31-05 )

o If the SBT were eliminated, Michigan would have the best business tax climate of all of the Great Lakes States. We would go from 36th to 13th in the nation, according to the Washington D.C. based Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index.

o Michigan has the most burdensome business “income” tax in the U.S. and the 27th highest personal income tax burden. (Tax Foundation, Anderson Economic Group)